Abstract

Spontaneous emission from crystal centers is influenced by both the photonic local density of states and non-radiative processes. Here, we monitor the spontaneous emission of single nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers as their host diamond is reduced in size from a large monolithic crystal to a nanocrystal by successive cycles of oxidation. The size reduction induces a quenching of the NV radiative emission. Additional non-radiative channels lead to a decrease of the fluorescence intensity and the excited state lifetime. In one case, we observe the onset of blinking which may provide a route to understand these additional non-radiative decay channels.

Received 24 May 2013Accepted 14 June 2013Published online 28 June 2013

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported in part by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS) (Project No. CE110001013). Substrate grids were fabricated at the OptoFab node of the ANFF at Macquarie University (B. Johnston).